T: Hello again readers, here's the newest chapter for you. I hope you enjoy it!
Meanwhile on another planet, a meeting was being held with a very familiar witch. The imposing woman wore a black dress and had horns on top of her head, and she held a long staff with a green orb on. With her was a large dog humanoid wearing a strange looking outfit made of blue, red, and black. It covered most of his body.
"So we have a deal, yes?" said the witch. Her voice was soft and quiet, but nevertheless echoed unnaturally with every word she spoke.
"Hmm, you want me to go to Atlantis and retrieve the 'Heart of Atlantis' correct?" A man stood on the other side of the meeting room. He was tall and well built.
"Yes, that is a page from a book that details Atlantis; it holds the location of the 'Heart of Atlantis'. Do note it is in Atlantean, and you will need to find someone who can read it. When you do find it, it may be well guarded. But I assure you, if you succeed, you will be well rewarded." She grinned at him.
"Hmm, I am being paid handsomely for the trip itself. But I suppose a little extra won't hurt." He smiled back at her.
"Good, now go. That portal will take you back to your world. Will you need any assistance?"
"Nah, I can handle it. Besides, I have enough men for the job anyway."
The man then walked through the portal which the witch had called forth. After he left, the dog spoke.
"Are you sure about this Maleficent? How do we know he won't mess up?"
"Patience Pete my dear. I am sure he will keep his end of the bargain." Maleficent got out of the chair and stood and began to walk through the halls of her new castle.
During the few months after the fall of Organization XIII, Maleficent had turned the castle at The World That Never Was into her own as she swore before Sora and Mickey. It was hardly recognisable anymore; the castle had gone from white to black and was covered in thorns all over, especially near the bottom of the castle. The Nobody emblem had been replaced with the Heartless emblem and thousands upon thousands of Heartless patrolled the city below, hunting for any intruders or Nobodies that remained.
"What good will this 'Heart of Atlantis' be anyway?" Pete asked. He seemed uneasy about their reliance on an outsider.
"Remember the Cornerstone of Light?" Maleficent said, looking over at Pete.
"The one at Disney Castle? Yeah, I remember it. What about it?"
"The Heart of Atlantis is quite similar, it has unlimited power! With that we can surely use it to take over the worlds! But those foolish Atlantean's probably don't know how to use it!"
"Why can't we just go and get it?"
"It is a difficult journey there. And that human seems to have acquired a way to get there. So why should we do the hard work?" She chuckled slightly before overlooking the city below.
"That makes sense. But how do we know he won't betray us?"
"If he does I will make him regret it! Besides, mercenaries can easily be bribed into doing dirty work."
"What if that Keyblade wielder and his friends interfere?" Pete was still unconvinced. Maleficent tightened her hold on her staff at the mention of their enemies.
"I doubt it, he is either still lost in the dark realm or is still on his island. Besides, sooner or later I will have my vengeance on him and his friends!"
"If you say so." Pete said looking doubtful.
"Fear not my dear, I am sure everything will go as planned. Hahahaha!" Maleficent began to laugh out loud, the evil sound travelling to every corner of the castle.
As for our heroes, they were taken with Milo to meet Helga's employer. They arrived at a gate with an arch that had a 'W' on the top. As they drove through the gates, Milo noticed the name of the owner, it was a person called 'Whitmore'.
Upon arriving at the doors they parked and got out of the car. Rushing through the rain, they hurried along and were greeted by a butler at the doors, after he let them all in they looked around the mansion. The mansion was large, on the walls sat pictures of what looked like the owner or possibly the owner's father. To the left was a fireplace which gave the room a nice warm glow to it, helping to dry out their soaked clothes.
In the corners of the room stood suits of armour, near the fireplace was a staircase that led to the upper levels of the mansion. The walls were coloured peach with wooden pillars and beams helping to support the mansion, at the back of the room there seemed to be a lift that looked like it could hold about six people. Their sightseeing was cut short when Helga spoke again.
"This way please. And don't drip on the carpet." Helga walked over to a lift, it would appear as if only a few would be able to go in.
"Some of us are going to have to stay behind." Mickey said.
"We will." Everyone looked at the Turks.
"Why?" Sora asked.
"Ransack- I mean investigation. Yeah, that sounds good." Tseng said before they split off.
"I worry about them at times." Riku said earning nods from Mickey and Sora, Kairi silently giggled at their behaviour.
"Donald, Goofy, wait here. And make sure they don't do anything stupid." Donald and Goofy nodded before going to look for them.
"Would you four hurry up! Mr Whitmore does not like to be kept waiting." At this the four of them hurried up into the lift, and the doors quickly closed with a swishing noise.
"You will address him as Mr Whitmore or Sir, you will stand unless asked to be seated. And keep your sentences short and to the point, are we clear?" Helga spoke fast and sharp to Milo and the others while making sure they all looked neat with quick movements.
When the lift stopped the five of them got out except for Helga who closed the shutters on the lift.
"Relax, he doesn't bite. Often..." Helga said before going up the lift.
Milo, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Mickey walked into the nicely decorated and furnished living room/lounge. There were many paintings and statues and there were a lot of books. It looked more like a library with all the books in it. As Sora and the others were looking around, Milo walked to the other end of the room, he saw a painting of two older men. One was wearing a brown suit and had a white beard on him, the other was wearing what looked like a safari outfit with helmet/hat included. Milo recognised him with ease.
"Grandpa?" Milo said looking at the man on the right of the picture whom he knew without a doubt was his grandfather.
"The finest explorer I ever met." Milo and the others turned to see the other man from the painting in a yoga position wearing a blue robe.
"Preston Whitmore, pleasure to meet you Milo. Those your friends?" Whitmore said shaking Milo's hand with his foot before using the other foot to move his head, which resulted in a loud crack, making the guests wince.
"Yeah they are."
"Well then, do you want to join me in a little Yoga?" He said before cracking more parts of his body.
"Uh, no, no thank you." Milo said looking at him oddly.
"Did you really know my grandfather?"
"Oh yeah, knew him for a long time. Met him in Georgetown University in 1866, we stayed close friends till the end of his days." This got Riku puzzled.
"What year is it here?"
"It's 1914, how did you not know it?" Milo said looking at him with an even more confused look.
"Oh never mind, guess I forgot." Sora and Kairi laughed at his behaviour.
"Well old Thatch used to drag me along on some his dang foolish expeditions." While Mr Whitmore said this, he had managed to move each individual toe which had Milo and Mickey looking surprised and horrified.
"Thatch was as crazy as a fruit bag he was. He spoke of you often Milo." The man was still moving his body around with apparent ease.
"Uh, funny, he kind of, never mentioned you." Milo couldn't recall hearing anything of a Whitmore.
"Oh he wouldn't. He knew how much I liked my privacy." He moved onto his head and balanced himself so that his whole body was pointing in the sky. This also resulted in his robes falling down to his waist.
The sight resulted in Milo kneeling down to Mr Whitmore's head to avoid seeing anything he would rather not; Kairi had already pushed her head into Sora's shoulder, not wanting to be scarred for life, while the others just looked away.
"I like to keep a low profile."
"I can see that," mumbled Riku.
"Uh, Mr Whitmore, shouldn't I be wondering why I am here?"
"Look on that table," Mr Whitmore said, pointing towards a small table on the other side of the room. He did not wobble even once while he pointed. Milo walked over to the table and picked up the small parcel that was on it.
"That's for you." Mr Whitmore said.
Milo looked at the parcel and noticed who sent him it, his eyes widened at the name.
"It's, it's from my grandpa?" Milo said incredulously, looking at Mr Whitmore who was standing up properly now.
"He brought that to me years ago. He said if anything were to happen to him, I should give it you when you were ready. Whatever that means." Milo removed the packing to reveal a book; it was brown and had a funny looking 'A' in the centre.
"It, it can't be! It's the Sheppard's Journal..." Milo looked absolutely amazed, the one thing he was wanting to find had already been found.
Sora and the others had a look at it and couldn't see anything special about it, other than it lead the way to Atlantis. This to Milo proved that Atlantis did exist.
"Mr Whitmore! This is the key to finding Atlantis!"
"HA! Atlantis, hahaha! I wasn't born yesterday son." Mr Whitmore went behind an object.
"No look at this! There are clues, co-ordinates, it's all right here!" Milo was looking through some of the pages as if it was Christmas day.
"Ah, it looks like gibberish to me!" Mr Whitmore said poking his head out.
"I kinda agree with him Milo, I can't make it out." Mickey had walked over and had a look.
"Well that's because it's been written in a dialect that no longer exists."
"Well then it's useless." Whitmore had poked his head out again.
"No just difficult, I have spent my whole life studying dead languages. It isn't gibberish to me." Milo said looking at another page.
"Well then it's probably a fake!" Mr Whitmore had appeared now wearing a white suit with a red tie.
Milo had closed the book and slowly turned around.
"Mr Whitmore my grandfather would have known if this were a fake, I would know. I would stake everything I own, everything I believe in, that this is the genuine Sheppard's Journal!" Milo said looking serious.
"Whoa, you must know your stuff." Sora said looking at Milo who nodded back to him.
"Alright then, so, what are you going to do with it?" Mr Whitmore sat at on a chair next to a long table.
"Well, I'll, I'll get funding," Milo mumbled, "from the museum." He didn't look very confident.
"They'll never believe you!"
"Well then I will show them, I will make them believe!"
"Like you did today?" Mr Whitmore said.
"Yes, I mean, no. How did you...? Okay look never mind that!"
"Hey calm down Milo." Mickey said trying to keep the boy from going mental.
"Look, I will find Atlantis on my own! Even if I have to rent a row boat!!" At Milo's words Mr Whitmore smiled.
"Congratulations Milo. This is exactly what I wanted to hear! But to get the row boat son..." Whitmore pressed a button on the desk that made several models appear.
"We'll travel in style!"
The biggest model was of a giant submarine, another was a smaller version that looked like a mini sub, a transport sub, a giant balloon, a driller and several vehicles. Milo and the others looked at them.
"It's all been arranged! The whole lot!"
"Why?" Milo asked wondering why Whitmore would do arrange for something like this.
"For years your granddad filled my ears with stories about that book. And I didn't buy them for a minute. So finally I got fed up with him and made a bet with the old coot." He started walking towards a small table.
"I said Thatch, if you ever actually find that so called Journal, not only will I finance the expedition for Atlantis but I'll kiss you full on the mouth! That turned out to be my embarrassment when he found the darn thing." He showed Milo a photo of the two looking disgusted and spitting all over the place from the kiss.
"Now I know your grandfather's gone Milo, god rest his soul. But Preston Whitmore is a man who keeps his word." He walked over to the picture of the two of them shaking their hands.
"You hear that Thatch!? I'm going to the afterlife with a clear conscience by thunder!" This proclamation was followed by a long sigh. Everyone turned their questioning attention to Mr Whitmore.
After a moment, he spoke. "...Your grandpa was a great man. You probably don't realise how great! Those buffoons at the museum! They turned him down, made a laughing stock of him. He died a broken man. If only I could bring back just ONE shred of proof, that will be enough for me. Oh Thatch..." He remained quiet for a while before turning around with a smile.
"Well what are we standing around for!? We've got work to do!"
"But Mr Whitmore you'll need all sorts! Engineers, geologists and scientists!"
"I got em all! The best of the best!"
He held several papers of people and descriptions, he read them out loud.
"We have Gaetan Moliére, everyone calls him Mole, the man has a nose for dirt. Vincenzo Santorini, Vinny for short, explosives expert, busted him out of a Turkish prison. Audrey Ramirez, mechanical expert. And we have the same crew who helped bring back the journal."
"Where was the journal?"
"In Iceland!" Whitmore pulled out a picture with the team that went to Iceland to find the journal.
"YES! I knew it!" Milo grinned, chuffed at the fact he was correct as to where it was.
"And now all we need is an expert in gibberish. So Milo, its decision time. You can build off the legacy your grandpa left you, or you can go back to your boiler room."
Milo looked at the photo and was overcome with everything that Mr Whitmore had told him.
"This is for real..."
"Now he realises!" Riku whispered looking at Sora.
"Can we come too?" Sora said.
"Well what can you do lad?" countered Whitmore with a smile. Sora met his smile, and summoned forth the Ultima Weapon Keyblade with a powerful flash of light.
"Hmm, I assume you can fight then?"
Sora grinned in response. "And my friends here can as well, and there's more of us too," he said, thumbing towards the lift where they'd left their companions.
"I suppose I may have use for you, besides, I think Milo will need some familiar faces after all."
"Well then, first I need to quit my job." Milo said standing to his feet.
"You did, you resigned this afternoon." Milo looked at him surprised.
"I did?"
"Yup!"
"My apartment, I'll have to give notice."
"Taken care of." Whitmore said cutting a bit of his beard off.
"My clothes?"
"...Packed."
"My books?"
"In storage..."
"My cat?"
There was a loud mewing. Milo reached back and grabbed his pet cat.
"My dosh?" Sora and the others just stared at the sudden scene.
"Your granddad had a saying Milo. Our lives are remembered by the gifts we leave our children. This journal is his gift to you Milo." Mr Whitmore handed Milo the Sheppard's Journal reverently.
"Atlantis is waiting...what do you say?" He held out his coat.
Milo looked like he would explode with happiness. "I'm your man Mr Whitmore!!"
"Good! And you lot?" He turned to Sora, Riku and Kairi and Mickey.
"As long as you don't mind. Besides we need to get there anyway." Mickey said with a smile.
"Well then, don't see why not. Welcome aboard!"
"This is the start of an adventure!" Riku said in a childlike way.
"Indeed, I'm so excited I can't even hold it in!!" Milo said wearing his coat the wrong way round.
A few days later...
Milo had seemed to develop seasickness. Either that or he was a very good actor with a knack for throwing up a lot.
They had been on a large ship for a couple of days now, this ship was large enough to hold the actual submarine from Mr Whitmore's models. At the moment everyone was on the deck looking out at the sea, Sora was trying to help Milo overcome his seasickness.
"You okay?"
"No, I know what has caused this..." Milo said glaring out at the sea.
"What? It's not seasickness?"
"No, it's worse. It's carrots."
"Carrots?" Sora raised an eyebrow at Milo.
"It's always carrots and I didn't even eat carrots." Milo was about to be sick again until someone spoke through the speakers.
"Attention! All hands to the launch bay…" A woman spoke on the speakers, she sounded like she was bored out of her mind.
Sora and the others then gathered all their belongings and went down to find the launch bay. Finding it was kind of hard since the ship was large but after a few minutes, they managed to find the hangar where numerous cars and other vehicles were being loaded. Milo and the others got lost due to the amount of cars, but luckily they managed to find someone standing around and thought they would ask for directions.
"Um excuse me, we need to report in." Milo said.
"Yes Mr Thatch..." The person turned out to be Helga, she gave a slight grin.
"Tha-AH! It's you!" Milo was shocked to see her.
Helga was about to reply when someone spoke.
"Blondie, I've got a bone to pick with you!" A man in his late years stood cross armed on his wagon as it was being unloaded. Helga rolled her eyes at his words.
"Hold that thought Milo..." She walked over to the other man. "What is it this time Cookie?"
"You've gone and stuffed my wagon with all these non-essentials! Look at all this rubbish!" Cookie picked up a box of food.
"Cinnamon, oats! What in cockadoodle were you thinkin'!?" He spoke in a weird cowboy accent. He threw the box out which resulted in a loud smash.
"What..is..this?" Cookie picked up another mysterious food with his finger and thumb as if it would bite him.
Helga looked at him with an aggravated look. "That would be lettuce!" she said shoving the vegetable in his face.
"LETTUCE!? YUCK! LETTUCE!!" Cookie stared at the vegetable like it was the most horrifying thing he had ever seen.
"...It's a vegetable Cookie! The men need the four basic food groups." Helga said holding the lettuce now.
"I've got yer four basic food groups!" Cookies said holding three fingers.
"Beans, Bacon, Whisky and Lard!" Cookie said counting them off on his fingers.
"Where in the world did that Whitmore guy find these people?" Riku said whispering to Sora and Kairi who both nodded with a worried look.
Before anyone could say anything else an alarm sound went off, not the sort used in emergencies but as in alerting. Helga looked up before shoving the lettuce into the cowboy, which resulted in him falling over in his wagon.
"All right then cowboy, pack it up and move it! As for you lot, get a move on!" Helga said walking off.
"Attention! All hands to the launch bay! Final loading in progress." The announcer woman said again.
Everyone walked over to a lift that would take them down further into the ship. There were tons of men and women, at least a good few hundred were on the ship moving onto the lift. When the lift managed to reach the bottom, before everyone's eyes was a giant submarine. It had a huge orange tinted glass bridge allowing a view into the bridge itself. It looked like it was heavily reinforced.
Sora, Milo, Riku, Kairi, Mickey and the others all looked at the giant sub that stood before them.
Riku whistled. "Now that is a big submarine!"
"Yeah, I hope it can get us there." Sora said.
Then suddenly a cart bumped into them carrying loads of boxes.
"Hey kiddies, if you're looking for the pony rides, they're back there," a man spoke gruffly. Kairi moved ever so slightly closer to Sora as the man walked past, and Sora glared at him. Milo gave a worried glance, but before he could speak, he noticed that the man had dropped something on the floor.
He picked up the object and called towards the man. "Excuse me, you dropped your d-d-dynamite..." Milo's eyes widened as looked at the small red stick in his hand. He gave a nervous chuckle as the man came back for it.
"What else you got in there?"
"Oh just, gunpowder, nitro-glycerine, NOTEPADS, fuses, wigs, GLUE, and...paper clips. BIG ones," the man said indicating a 4ft paper with his hands. He had a slight Italian accent, and a deep voice.
"You know just office supplies. By the way, I'm Vinny, and I love to blow things up!" he said before walking off.
"...He isn't coming with us is he?" Sora looked at his little group and they all nodded.
"Hey Milo, kids! Where've you been!?" Mr Whitmore walked up to them with his arms wide and a big grin, wearing a blue captain's uniform. Next to him was another man, he was tall and had a serious expression on as he looked around.
"I would like you to meet Commander Rourke, he led the Iceland team to find the journal." He said indicating to the man who was smiling at them.
"Milo Thatch, a pleasure to meet the grandson of old Thaddeus Thatch," he said shaking his hand.
"And who may you lot be?" Rourke said looking at Sora and the others.
"I'm Sora and these are my friends." Sora said pointing to the group behind him. Everyone said hi, Riku looked at the man in a funny way but changed it to a smile quickly.
"Pleasure to meet you! Ah, I see you have that journal Milo. Hehe, nice pictures, but I myself prefer a good Western." Milo raised an eyebrow at his words before Mr Whitmore nudged him.
"Pretty impressive eh guys?"
"I must admit, when you settle a bet, you settle a bet!" Milo said walking with the two of them. Everyone else followed suit, they were all looking around amazed at what they saw, all the people and vehicles.
"Well like you grandfather said, you can't put a price on the pursuit of knowledge."
"Well this is going to be small change compared to what we're going to learn on this trip." Milo said earning a smile from Mr Whitmore and Rourke.
"Yes, this should be enriching for all of us," Rourke said.
"Attention, all personnel! Boat launch commencing in 15 minutes!" At this Rourke looked at Milo and the others.
"Well it's time to go kids, come on." He then turned to Whitmore and saluted.
"Mr Whitmore..."
"Rourke..." Whitmore gave a salute back.
Sora and the others followed Milo and Rourke up the ramp into the submarine which was named the Ulysses.
"Bye Mr Whitmore!" Milo said before entering the ship.
"Make us proud, boy!!" Whitmore replied before the shutters closed.
In the Ulysses, all the crew were sealing off the entrances and prepping the engines. Rourke stood at the bridge along with Helga, Milo and the others. They looked out beyong the glass to the ship, suddenly aware of what was about to happen.
"Lieutenant, take her down," Rourke said to Helga.
"Diving officer, prepare to submerge the ship!" At her words there was a bustle of activity as the crew began to set the co-ordinates and depth that the sub would take.
The cranes holding the sub were detached with a metallic clang, and the sub fell into the water before slowly diving. Mr Whitmore stood a distance away from the front of the sub, waving goodbye. He quickly put one of his hands behind his back and crossed his fingers before giving a thumbs up to the Ulysses.
The sub began to dive into the depths of the ocean; it shone brightly against the dark abyss of the deepening water. As it went further down more lights flickered to life, illuminating the sub. The journey to find Atlantis had begun...
T: There you go, another chapter done. Till next time!